Theoretical Development of Sexual Harassment

: The Four-Harms Approach

Abstract

One of the reasons why sexual harassment has not decreased is the low level of public awareness of the harm it causes. Many countermeasure manuals and government guidelines only list examples of actions that could be sexual harassment, but do not help us understand why such actions should be prevented. The first step in eradicating sexual harassment is to raise public awareness of what sexual harassment is and what kinds of harm it causes to victims. In this article, I propose the “four-harms （harm to dignity, harm of sexual discrimination, harm to labor, harm to long-term self-actualization） approach.” I believe that the “four-harms approach” provides a comprehensive overview of sexual harassment from the standpoint of the victims without losing sight of the gendered power structure.